Adjustable building ventilator



Nov. 8, 1955 Filed Sept. 24, 1952 F. H. LESLIE ADJUSTABLE BUILDING VENTILATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Nov. 8, 1955 F. H. LESLIE ADJUSTABLE BUILDING VENTILATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 24, 1952 rates Patent 2,722,981 Patented Nov. 8, 1955 'nice ADJUSTABLE BUILDING VENTILATOR Freeland H. Leslie, Glen Ellyn, Ill.

Application September 24, 1952, Serial No. 311,262

2 Claims. (Cl. 16B-223) This invention relates to building ventilators of the type which are used on the vertical wall near the peak at the end of a building such as a house, for instance. The ventilator is of the type which is adjustable so that only one style needs to be stocked even though it may eventually be used upon a house having any of several roof pitches.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a novel louver of the type described which is adapted to use in a wide variety of situations and which can be manufactured and sold at low cost.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

in the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an end view of the upper portion of a house or similar building showing my ventilator in place on the completed structure;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional. view through the ventilator and a portion of the building and may be considered as taken in the direction of the arrows substantially along the line 2--2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a front View of the ventilator of the present invention shown attached to a building with portionsof the building structure being broken away so as to disclose the relationship of the building to the ventilator and the structure of the ventilator;

Fig. 4 is a back view of the ventilator of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a fractional perspective view taken from the rear showing the construction of individual louver blades and their telescoping relationship;

Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view of the upper edge of one of the ends of an individual louver and may be considered as taken in the direction of the arrows substantially along the lines 6 6 of Fig. 4; and

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 but taken at the opposite end of one of the louver blades and may be considered as a vertical sectional view taken in the direction of the arrows substantially along the line 7 7 of Fig. 4.

As seen in Fig. 1, and as will be described in greater detail presently, the device is triangular in general outline and is adjustable so as to change the angle at the upper apex thereof while maintaining the base horizontal. It is attached to the house framing by a plurality of tabs or ears 1%) along the two upper edges. After attachment, these ears are covered with a finishing or facia strip 12.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 3, it will be seen that at the top of the device there is a triangular sheet metal louver 14 having an upper apeX angle of approximately 120. The two upper edges of this triangular louver are provided with tabs 16 which project outwardly and are adapted to be nailed flat against the framing at the end of a house or similar building. With these tabs so located, the main surface of the louver 14 is recessed at the top behind the plane of the tab faces 10 so as to have its lower edge approximately at the plane of the tabs but with its upper apex thereof well behind these faces, thus providing an outwardly and downwardly sloping forward face.

This angularity of outward slope can be anything desired, but normally will be about the same as louvers usually used for such Ventilating purposes.

Below the upper triangular louver member 14 is a second louver 16 formed as a strip having similar tabs 10 at its outward ends. The upper edge of the louver strip 16 is recessed so as to lie behind and somewhat above the lower edge of the triangular louver 14. The lower edge of the louver strip 16 is in the same plane as the lower edge of the triangular louver 14. Unlike the triangular louver 14, however, the strip 16 is formed in two pieces 16a and 16b which telescope together. Beneath the louver strip 16 there is another similar but longer louver strip 18, and beneath this a fourth louver 20. The strips 18 and 20 can be considered as identical with the strip 16 excepting that they are progressively longer. rThis construction is best seen in Fig. 5, where it will appear that the two horizontal edges of the member 18a are rolled inwardly so as to form lips which embrace the rolled edges of the slightly narrower strip membery 18bl Theends of the louver strip 16, therefore, can be pulled outwardly or collapsed so as to have a variable overall length. From the distance at which such louvers are seen, the fact that a portion of this strip is slightly narrower than the remaining portion will not be apparent. Each of the strips 18 and 2i) are provided at their outward ends with tabs or ears 10 adapted to be nailed against thewoodwork of the building.

By looking at the rearward face of the device, as illustrated in Fig. 4 for instance, it will be seen that there are a pair of bars formed of iiat strip steel and indicated by the numerals 22 and 24. They are pivoted together at their upper ends by means of a rivet or bolt 26 which also passes through a clip 2S secured to the back of the triangular louver 14 near the upper apex thereof. These bars 22 and 24 incline downwardly well inside the ends of the louver strips 16, 18 and 2t), and are pivoted to each of these by means of rivets or screws.

By referring to Fig. 4 it will be seen that somewhat inwardly from its outer end the louver member 16a (the exterior member of the telescoping pair) has a downward extension 30 of the upper rolled edge thereof behind the louver which serves as the point of attachment for a rivet 32, also passed through the bar 22. If desired a small metal strip such as indicated at 34 in Fig. 6 can be spot-welded to the forward face of the larger of the two louvers and bent over the top into a position near the back to be used as a point of attachment in place of the edge extensions 3i), the rivet being indicated in this instance by the numeral 36. By whichever of these expedients it is desired to use, in each instance the wider blade (16a, 18a and 29a) is pivoted to the contiguous bar (Z2 or 24).

At a similar location inwardly of their ends, each of the smaller of the two louvers (1Gb, 1817, and 2Gb) carries a sheet metal clip 4d spot welded to the back surface at an appropriate position and these clips are in turn p'ivoted by rivets 3S to the contiguous bars 22 and 24. Thus, when any one of these louvers is elongated all the others change length an appropriate amount so as to keep all the blades parallel and maintain the general triangular configuration of the entire structure.

The tabs l@ are 'formed at the ends of each of the louvers at a fixed degree of angularity with respect to the longitudinal center lines of the blades. This angularity is preferably that which is appropriate for the average pitch of roof. Therefore, when the ventilator is used on roofs of different pitch, the ends of the blades will not lie quite parallel to the roof rafters as may be seen in Fig. 3. This is of minor consequence, however, because the facia boards or strips as shown in Pig. 3 cover the outer edges of the louvers suieiently to hide the extreme ends of the blades.

It will be seen that one of the advantages of the pres- 'ent invention is that there is no external metal framework along the upper edges of the louver to which the ends are pivoted and therefore the structure is less expensive to make and more easily covered at its edges by a facia strip so that it is not so apparent after installation that the ventilator is prefabricated and of the adjustable type. The louver therefore more' readily ts into conventional architecture and is more in keeping with customary building construction. Also, since the angularity of the bars 22 and 24 with respect to each other i`s more acute than is the angularity of the triangular opening into which the ventilator fits, changes in the over-all angularity of the ventilator to iit different roof pitches does not change the vertical spacing between the louvers a's much as is the case when the ends of the iouvers are pivoted to a frame formed of channel members or the like.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A prefabricated adjustable building ventilator having a generally isosceles triangular configuration and adapted for use in a generally vertical plane with the base horizontal and the opposite apex uppermost, said ventilator having a front face intended to face outwardly of a building upon which it is used and a back face intended to face inwardly thereof, said ventilator comprising a plurality of individual teleseoping louver blades and a nontelescoping isosceles triangular louver member, said blades being parallel to each other and to the base of said triangular louver member and spaced in succession beneath said triangular member, each of said blades and triangular member having securing tabs formed integrally therewith and extending outwardly from the 'ends thereof and adapted for direct nailing securement to a triangular plane wooden framework, a pair of arms, means pivoting said arms at their upper ends to the back of said nontelescoping louver, said arms being inclined downwardly and outwardly with respect to each other so as to extend across the backs of all of said blades at positions inwardly of the inner margins of said tabs, and means p'ivotally connecting each of said arms to each of said blades at positions inwardly of the inner margins of said tabs so that all of the tab portions extend outwardly of said arms, whereby changes in the angularity of said arms relative to each other changes the length of all of said telescoping louver blades so as to change the proportions of the generally triangular ventilator.

2. A prefabricated adjustable building ventilator having a generally isosceles triangular conguration and adapted for use ina generally vertical plane with the base horizontal and the' opposite apex uppermost, said ventilator having a front face intended to face outwardly of a building upon which it is used and a back face intended to face inwardly thereof, said ventilator being comprised of a plurality of individual telescoping louver blades and a nontelescoping isosceles triangular louver member, said blades being parallel to each other and to the base of said triangular louver member and spaced in succession beneath said triangular member, each of said blades and triangular member having securing tabs extending outwardly from the ends thereof and adapted for direct securement to a triangular plane framework, a pair of arms, means pivoting said arms at their upper ends to the back of said nontelescoping louver, said arms being inclined downwardly and outwardly with respect to each other so as to extend across the backs of all of said blades at positions inwardly of the ends thereof, and means pivoting each of said arms to all of said blades at positions inwardly of said tabs, such that changes in the angularity of said arms relative to each other changes the length of all of said telescoping louver blades.

References Cited inthe le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,458,134 Belden Jan. 4, 1949 2,587,509 Moyer et al Feb. 26, 1952 2,589,529 Bowers Mar. 18, 1952 

